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"Then why did you choose a vegetarian?" One day, I remember, we cooked together in the kitchen. I asked my hostess, Griffin, curiously.

"That's because our family has always been vegetarians …" "No," she said.

"My parents were both devout Buddhist believers. "My mother-in-law even lives in a temple to train …" Griffin said.

In their house, she told me, there was a special shrine. Her mother-in-law, as well as her parents, devoutly offered incense and prayers in front of the shrine every day. Every month, he would go to the temple and pray. Eating vegetarian food was the most basic way of life in their family. Since she was born, she had eaten vegetarian food. He didn't feel that there was anything wrong with it. However, as a member of the younger generation, she doesn't believe in Buddha …

The Buddhists are vegetarian, too. They eat because of their faith. They belong to a different group of people in the vegetarian population. Why do Buddhists have to be vegetarian?

There is an article online that explains the reasons why Buddhist people eat vegetarian food:

"There is a deep relationship between vegetarianism and Buddhism, and many of the world's leading scholars have done in-depth research on this issue. However, there are still differences in academia about why Buddhists prefer vegetarianism.

Most scholars believe that Buddhist vegetarianism is related to the Buddhist concept of "compassion". For the basic idea of Sakyamuni's creation of Buddhism was that all beings are equal, all beings are Buddhist in nature, all can become Buddha. The "life" here does not just refer to the person, the Buddhist "Five Commandments" is also the number one is "abstinence from killing life". Brahmanism and Jainism, older than the history of Buddhism, also speak of the Five Commandments, though not in the same way. But when they say "life," they mean people, and Buddhism is not. In Buddhism, not only does non-killing involve non-killing, it also includes non-killing of all living beings, that is, all conscious life, including animals. Because animals tend to show fear or anger on their faces when they are slaughtered, accompanied by hoarse wails or howls, which are considered unlucky by merciful Buddhists, because Buddhism prefers good and evil to evil, so it is decided that the "evil" of merciless slaughter of animals is bound to attract evil retribution. The later Buddhist scriptures, such as the "Nirvana Scripture", the "Ranga Tawau Precious Scripture", the "Central Digging of the Demon Luo Scripture", the "Brahma Scripture", the "First Anaconda Solemn Scripture" and so on, all explicitly state that all human flesh should not be eaten.

So, is Buddhism clearly not allowed to eat meat from the moment it was born?

In the "Nirvana Scripture", Jia Ye Bodhisattva asked Buddha, "Why does Yun Tathagata not listen to the law of eating meat?"

"The Buddha says:" "A man who eats meat will have his seed cut off."

Jia Ye then asked Buddha, "Why did you eat the Three Pure Meats and Nine Pure Meats first?"

Buddha tells Jia Ye: "It is because the matter gradually subsides, but knowledge is the right thing to do. "Jia Ye, from today onwards, I will make sure that my disciples will not eat any meat."

Thus, Buddhism did not advocate vegetarianism from the start. There was a gradual process of eating meat or eating vegetables.

From the Buddhist scriptures, it can be seen that the founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, also started out as a meat eater. Because he was in a passive position, he had to eat whatever his benefactor gave him. There was no room for negotiation. He had once told his disciple that under special circumstances, he could eat meat, but he could only eat as little as possible. Furthermore, he could only passively accept it and not take the initiative to ask for more.

He also allowed the parishioners to eat the Three Purities. The so-called "Three Purified Meat" is:

"I didn't kill them myself, I didn't kill them for me, I didn't kill them with my own eyes."

Then it was added that the "dead meat" and the "discarded meat" were referred to as the "Five Purified Meat", which evolved into the "Nine Purified Meat".

In other words, Buddhists could eat part of the meat.

And how does the vegan wind prevail among the Buddhists? In the end, Buddhism emphasized "abstinence from killing and living". Sakyamuni also repeatedly warned his disciples to eat as little meat as possible in order to facilitate their cultivation. In order to abide by the rule of "abstinence from killing and living" and reach the state of cultivation without any limit, some Buddhist disciples took the extreme path. They simply insisted on not eating meat and only ate vegetarian food.

Therefore, vegetarianism has a slightly "ascetic" taste, but it finally won the upper hand. Vegetarianism is more and more praised by Buddhist people, and is widely written in Buddhist scriptures.

The "Brahma Net Scripture" states:

"If the Buddha cannot eat all the flesh, then the seed of the Buddha will be cut off, and all living beings will part with it. Therefore, all Bodhisattvas cannot eat all the living flesh, and eating meat is an immeasurable sin."

The theory of causal reincarnation further illustrates the fault of meat eating from the point of view of the theory of "Dagang Entering the Corn Ga Scripture". The scriptures pointed out that since the Aeon Span, all life flowed through the Six Paths of Samsara, living and dying, revolving endlessly. They were once parents and brothers, families of men and women, and even relatives of friends, so how could they bear to eat?

The Buddhist scriptures also say that when the believers reach the state of "extermination", they must avoid eating even the "Three Pure Meat" and "Five Pure Meat", or they will be punished by the heavens as well. The Buddhist scriptures also say that when the believers reach the state of "extermination", they must also abstain from eating the "Three Pure Meat" and "Five Pure Meat".

Some scholars believe that there is no inevitable relationship between vegetarian and "great compassion". For example, the Buddhist Secret Sect flourishes in Tibet, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Nepal, Sijin and other regions, which are all high mountains and highlands. The climate is so cold that it is not suitable for farming, but only for animal husbandry. After the introduction of Buddhism, not only did it not change the customs and habits of local carnivores, it even combined with the local culture to form a secret sect with a strong primitive religion …

All in all, Buddhist vegetarians have been praised for their concept of body cultivation based on "compassion," and Buddhist carnivores have been exonerated for their culture being impermeable. To Buddhist believers, it is better to eat less and not to eat more and not to eat more. To those who do not believe in Buddhism, vegetarianism and meat eating are the choices of modern society and have no relation with religion or not. "

Others point out that Buddhism is not only forbidden to eat vegetarian food and meat, it is also forbidden to eat meat. Flavor refers to the general name of a vegetable with a strong odor. Generally speaking, it referred to Wuxin or Wuchang. Wuxin is five kinds of vegetables with pungent taste, namely garlic, scallion, garlic seedlings (garlic), leek, culvert. To study the Buddha, one must abstain from Wu Xin, because Wu Xin is irritating. To eat a lot of food and drink raw will increase one's lust, and eating raw will increase one's vexation. When Buddha has desire and vexation, he will deceive wisdom, increase foolishness, act recklessly and do evil deeds.

There is a passage in the first Canon of Anxiety which reads: "All living beings are born from eating and eating, and eating poison and dying. It is all living beings who seek the Three Masses and the Earth, and seek the Three Masses and the Earth. In this world, even if the people who eat food could proclaim the 12 scriptures and the Ten Directions Celestial Immortal, they would be able to distance themselves far away from the smelly and salty; while the other hungry ghosts would often kiss and live with the ghosts because of their frequency of consumption. With each passing day, Ford would have no profit. It's the Sinker, the Cultivator of the Three Realms, the Bodhisattva, the Celestial Immortal, and the Myriad Gods; they won't come to protect us. "